Drone With Drugs And Porn Seized Near Maryland Prisons; 2 Arrested

Aug 24 (Reuters) -- Two men have been arrested for allegedly trying to fly drugs and pornography into Maryland prisons using a drone, authorities said on Monday, the second U.S. prison incident involving drones in a month.

The men were arrested late on Saturday near the Western Correctional Institution and the North Branch Correctional Institution at Cumberland in western Maryland, the state prison department said.

One of the two men was released on $250,000 bail and the second was still being held. The spokesman had no immediate details on their identities or charges.

The incident is still under investigation, he said. The arrests followed a probe by police and prison investigators.

The attempt is the first in Maryland to fly contraband into a prison using a drone, the spokesman said. A drone dropped a package of heroin, marijuana and tobacco in the recreation yard of an Ohio prison in late July, sparking a fight.

Last year, a drone was used to try to smuggle phones, marijuana and tobacco into a South Carolina prison, but it crashed outside the facility's walls.